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Christie Blatchford: SNC and Del Mastro — similar accusations, much different treatment

Christie Blatchford

Published: May 1, 2019 - 8:58 PM

Updated: May 2, 2019 - 10:30 AM

This is a story about the giant engineering firm recently described as “a signature Canadian company” based in Montreal — why yes, it is SNC-Lavalin — and another, smaller but successful company based in Mississauga, Ont.

Compare, if you will, how the two were treated by the Commissioner of Canada Elections.

The former has been in the news for months, but most recently because the CBC recently obtained a secret list of the names of key SNC executives who allegedly made bogus political donations, mostly to the federal Liberal party.

I say allegedly as a matter of courtesy.

SNC-Lavalin signed a “compliance agreement” in 2016 with the Commissioner of Canada Elections in which the company admitted that “certain former senior executives” or their relatives had made the fake donations, and that those employees then either got fictitious bonuses or false expense refunds so they weren’t out of pocket, and that it was actually SNC-Lavalin itself forking out the dough, presumably to make new friends or thank existing ones in the natural governing party.

Another curious thing: Only one former SNC employee was criminally charged

Alas, since the CBC’s Fifth Estate got the list, and phoned many of the former SNC executives, some have denied acting as “straw donors,” even though they are named on the previously secret list.

In any case, that deal is long done.

The Liberal party has reportedly repaid the federal Receiver General $109,615.76 (forgive the cynicism, but I’d like to see those cheques or receipts), and the federal Conservative party a whopping $8,287.73 for the pittance SNC had tossed its way.

Another curious thing: Only one former SNC employee, Normand Morin, was criminally charged. Last November, Morin pleaded guilty in the Court of Quebec to “soliciting political contributions from certain senior officers” … while offering them a reimbursement from SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. and “acting in collusion with certain senior officials … for the purpose of circumventing” election financing laws forbidding corporate donations.

He paid a total fine of $2,000.

What happened to all those former senior officers with whom he was colluding?

According to the CBC, the list of fake donor names — 18 former SNC brass, directors and some spouses — was sent to the federal Liberals in a confidential letter from the Commissioner of Canada Elections on Aug. 5, 2016, just weeks before SNC CEO Neil Bruce and Elections Commissioner Yves Cote signed the compliance agreement.

Compare all that to the treatment accorded David Del Mastro and his electrical/energy company, Deltro Ltd.

David is the cousin of former Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro, who was criminally charged in 2014 for circumventing election expense limits by using his own money to purchase voter canvassing and get-out-the-vote services, getting the supplier to send him a false invoice and participating with his official agent in filing a false election campaign return.

All of this was done during the 2008 election.

Basically, the former Peterborough, Ont., MP was convicted of improperly over-donating to his own campaign.

He was convicted of three offences, sentenced to a month in jail, four more in the community and 18 months probation. He also had to repay $10,000 to the Peterborough electoral district association.

He resigned in 2014.

David, on the other hand, was accused, also in 2014, of running an SNC-like scheme to help his cousin.

David Del Mastro, accused of making illegal contributions to the campaign of his cousin, former Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro. outside court in 2016.

He was acquitted of all charges after the judge ruled prosecutors couldn’t use evidence improperly seized in a raid on Deltro’s offices.

But the allegations were so similar to those SNC admitted to doing.

According to an agreed statements of facts introduced at David’s trial, more than a dozen employees of Deltro, or their relatives, each donated $1,000 to Del Mastro’s campaign or his riding association and were then all reimbursed $1,050 by Deltro Ltd.

The total amount of money up for grabs was about $22,000.

The total potential election result affected was one (Dean Del Mastro’s seat, which he won with 47.5% of the vote in 2008) in one federal election.

The SNC scheme, by comparison, ran undetected from March of 2004 to May of 2011, or almost seven years.

In that period, there were three general elections, in 2006, 2008 and 2011. There was one Liberal party leadership race (about $12,000 of the illegal SNC donations went to candidates in that race). That’s three potential elections and God knows how many seats and outcomes affected.

Each case investigated by our office is assessed on the basis of its own merits

And lawyers who represented the Del Mastro cousins say they both asked for “compliance agreements” for their clients and were flatly refused.

“We asked very early on in the process if we could discuss a compliance agreement,” said Jeffrey Ayotte, the Peterborough lawyer who represented Dean Del Mastro.

“He got jail time,” he said of his former client. “You look at what SNC did and the influence they were trying to get…”

Scott Fenton of Toronto represented David Del Mastro at trial, and before it began, he approached prosecutors and said, “It’s ridiculous to criminalize this behaviour…”

He wrote the prosecutors a lengthy letter, arguing for a compliance agreement, pointing out that the Commissioner of Canada Elections had already obtained convictions against Dean and his former campaign manager arising from the same campaign, and pointed to other compliance agreements the federal agency had reached with other, larger companies where the amounts at issue were much larger, including with one firm that was a repeat offender.

Myriam Croussette, senior communications adviser for the Commissioner of Canada Elections, said SNC-Lavalin also had to adopt and maintain compliance standards, publish advertisements to this effect, so as to “encourage future compliance by others.”

As for why neither Del Mastro was even considered for a compliance agreement, Croussette said, “each case investigated by our office is assessed on the basis of its own merits.”

Under that trademark blindfold of hers, Lady Justice must sometimes be winking.